Toronto-only: New Canuck airline wins NY flyers

Less than two months after Canadas Porter Airlines launched direct flights between New York and Toronto, the carrier reports that bookings are running 80% ahead of projections. The two-year-old airline began flying seven flights a day from Newark International to Toronto City Airport in late March.

From the outset Porter has targeted business travelers on the route that links the continents two top financial capitals. The strategy appears to have paid off as the airline reports that nearly 85% of its Newark passengers are traveling for business.

With a single-class cabin, similar to Queens-based JetBlue Airwayswhich also flies to nearby BuffaloPorter is offering fares as low as $200 round trip. That is roughly equivalent to some of JetBlues fares out of John F. Kennedy International. Porter has plans to increase its Newark schedule to 12 flights per day by the end of next year.

Our passengers have been asking us to add New York since well before we started operating our first flights, says Porter Chief Executive Robert Deluce.

Roughly one million passengers shuttled between New York City and Toronto last year. Overall, travel between New York and Canada has shot up nearly 30% over the past five years, reaching 2.4 million passengers in 2007, according to data from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Porter is now the fifth airline offering non-stop, 70-minute flights between New York and Toronto. It has been expanding aggressively, even as other airlines cut back in the face of soaring fuel costs and a slumping economy. The Toronto-based carrier currently operates six Bombardier jets that seat 70. It plans to double its fleet by years end.

The company began running quirky full-page ads in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and others featuring a pointer-wielding raccoon last month. Though Mr. Deluce declined to give specifics, he says it is the largest advertising expenditure the carrier has made in a single market.

Porter raised $126 million in private equity in 2006 from Canadian and American investors, and though its been burning through the initial funding, Mr. Deluce reports the closely held airline has been profitable on an operating basis since June.

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